Silver Nightmares
by The Lonely Curator
Summary: Ruby begins having nightmares of a strange Grimm in the gardens at Beacon, with the nightmares carrying over into the day. With every night turning into a fight for her life, and a group of four strangers being involved, Ruby will be forced to learn more about both the new Grimm, and why it's targeting her every night. Can she find the answers before the shadows close in on her?


Ozpin sighed heavily after having walked out of the room Blake remained sitting in. The whole affair at the docks, while not a massive issue comparatively to what he has seen in the past few months, it certainly did not bode well. He slowly made his way to his office, his mind racing with thoughts and plans on what his next move needed to be. He was running out of ideas to protect Vale. The noose of Salem's grasp was getting tighter every day. His students weren't ready, his main agents were deep undercover and unavailable in any way, and he couldn't risk doing something like how Atlas handled their issues or else fear would run rampant in Vale and draw in more Grimm than there already had been in the past few months. And there had certainly been more than usual. Not enough to force Ozpin's hand, or even the council's. But more than what could be ignored for long periods of time.

He reached his office, settling down into his chair as he groaned. His old joints feeling relief as they were allowed to rest. He leaned back, glancing out the window into the darkened night sky of Vale and Beacon. The moon, as beautiful as it was in its own way, was a sign and reminder to him that he needed to weight every option carefully and correctly. He heard a small ping from his desk. He spun around slowly, swiping across it with slight aggravation when he saw it was well after midnight and he was still receiving messages. There was no words, but an attachment in the message. He began to open it, closing his eyes as his screen opened the decrypted file. He almost felt himself drift off when a flash of light drew his eyes open.

Leaning forward, he saw it was a picture, of Beacon's gardens no less. He couldn't see anything strange at first glance, but he spotted something that caused adrenaline to rush through his body, his eyes shooting open and slight panic flooding into his mind. It showed a section of the gardens near the back where there were large rosebushes and small stone statues. And that's where his worry came from. One of the stone statues was cut clean through, a black liquid along the cut edge of both sides, a small almost unnoticeable pool of it along the ground. He could also see one of the roses from the bush had been cut as well, the normally red petals having been turned pitch black and with a pool of the black liquid along the ground.

Ozpin immediately pulled out his scroll, typing in a number and calling it. It only rang once, a feminine voice answering. "Emma, I need you and your team to assist me here in Vale. Things are getting much more dire here, and very swiftly. I need SCRND here now."

There was a brief bout of silence before she spoke. "Oz... You've done a lot for us, me and my brothers. But you know that we have our own mission that takes priority."

"What if I told you there was a way to do both?"

"What are you talking about, Oz?" She seemed confused. "What happened in Vale?"

Ozpin sent the picture to her scroll from his desk. "Did you get it?"

"Yes, the gardens in Beacon. What does this have to do with..." she slowly tapered off. "Is that what I think it is?" Her voice was quivering. "Don't get my hopes up, Oz. Not after we've been at a dead end for so long."

"I just received that picture a few minutes before calling you. It's fresh, Emma." He paused, frowning as he chose his next words lightly. "I know you and your brothers are going to continue your search, but if you're here, especially during the Vytal festival, we could use your help. I can give you aid in your search if your team offers help to us."

She sighed into her phone. He had no doubt she put it down slightly. He waited, his heart beating swiftly as he gave her time. This was one of his last chances, and he couldn't risk losing this chance. It wasn't good odds for the whole team, he knew that. They hadn't all left his go-to teams on the best terms. And that was fair, but they surely wouldn't turn down this opportunity he was giving them. Not even Andrew would turn it down. And that was the one he was the most worried about meeting after all this time.

She raised it back up. "I'll be there. Whether the others come and decide to help you will be up the them, Oz. I'll help you when and where I can. But remember these words." Her words carried a small amount of venom now. "If it comes down between my brothers and you, I will leave you to burn this time. And that's not a threat." Ozpin knew what words would come next. "That's a promise."

"I understand. When will you be here?"

"Tomorrow. Early. We know how to get to Beacon. We'll see you then. And gather any information you have for us into a briefing file. Both on Tyre and for what you want from us. It'll help us get right to work and get caught up on what we need to know." She grew silent for a few seconds. "And Oz?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry for whatever Andrew is going to say to you tomorrow. He is still hurting. All of us are. We are just trying to get over it in different ways."

"I know, Emma." He propped his head against his free hand. "I doubt it will mean anything, but I am still sorry for what happened. I never wanted things to turn out the way that they did."

She said nothing for a short beat. Then she said two words before hanging up. "I know."

Ozpin tossed his scroll onto the desk with more force than was necessary. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and if he was going to be adequately prepared for it then he would probably be up all night again. He began to get to work, gathering what little he had on Tyre, and the pawns of the Black Queen. He needed Qrow back, and his others as soon as he could get them back. He needed so much more. Summer was gone, Tai got out, and Raven left. His most promising team was lost, and then the next team he had found showed just as much promise, but they also broke apart, though not by any of their choices.

Tyre Shade was the leader, the guide for his siblings, and Ozpin's biggest supporter. But family for him always came first, and in the end it was what got him devoured by shadows. Now Ozpin had to deal with the consequences of a man who was pushed to the brink and did what was necessary to protect his siblings. He sighed into his hands once more, speaking into his scroll to ask for a cup of coffee to be delivered to his office at someone's earliest convenience. He also had a memo sent to Glynda to let her know of what had occurred, and to be ready to meet SCRND at Beacon's entrance in the morning. She would no doubt like to see Andrew. She did, after all, with work and the both of them being busy, rarely get to see her son.

* * *

Team RWBY was settling down for the night, hoping to be able to relax and sleep in after the whole affair at the docks. Ruby had taken a particularly nasty blow from Torchwick, not that she couldn't take it. But she wanted to rest for sure. She closed her eyes, giving her team a good night before drifting off shortly after.

When she opened her eyes she wasn't in her dorm room. She was somewhere outside, with foliage around her. She couldn't see too well, but eventually discovered that she was at the Beacon gardens near the back. She stood from the soft patch of grass she had been resting on and began to walk towards the exit. But when she reached the normal gap in the hedges and bushes, she was even more confused to see no such exit was there.

So she began to walk further into the garden, hoping to find another exit near the back. She also began to let out silent calls to her team, having a feeling they were the ones behind her being outside in nothing but her pajamas. It wasn't cold like she was expecting, with crickets chirping calmly and a few lightning bugs flittering by, but it did feel... different from the gardens normally. It felt heavy in the garden. Like something was weighing down upon her very soul. It felt almost dead, like when one walked through a graveyard, or near the place where someone was laid to rest. It reminded her of being at her mother's grave at night. But even then there had been less of a crushing feeling upon her. It also didn't help that she felt as though something was watching her.

She then stopped when a cold breeze passed through what felt like her very being. It didn't feel like the wind, but like the breath of something. She turned swiftly, her stance widening. She may not have had her weapon, but she could at least try to run or distance herself with her semblance from whatever was here with her. But how could a Grimm have gotten into Beacon? Unless it was some sort of flying Grimm, getting into Beacon without being seen was almost impossible. When nothing immediately jumped out at her, she slowly crept forward, keeping her senses tuned to anything that could be hiding near her.

She reached one of the inner parts of the massive garden, a place she hadn't ever been to before. She didn't even know that Beacon's garden was so massive. She had only really been in the front of it, and even then, it was briefly explored with her team to get a better grasp of the school campus. She rounded a corner, glancing around to see a large courtyard that was very well hidden in the garden, with multiple stone statues of spiral designs, with some having flowers growing around them and on top. They weren't much taller than her, but they looked nice, and she would have taken more time to appreciate then if she wasn't in her current situation. She heard a shaky breath being let out from deeper, where a small grove of trees had grown. If it was already dark outside, inside the grove it was pitch black.

Ruby looked deep in, squinting her eyes in hopes of seeing something. "Hello?" She called out softly. Then everything grew deathly silent. The wind stopped, the chirping crickets immediately ceased and all the lights from the bugs flying by immediately dimmed and disappeared. No sound being made except her heartbeat speeding up in her chest as fear began to claw its way into her. Something was very wrong, and whatever was causing that was right in front of her.

_"Siiiiiilllllll..." _a voice hissed out from the shadows. Inhuman and coming from multiple spots at once. Ruby froze in her spot, unable to move as something began to writhe in the darkness. It was growing closer, barely visible in the moonlight.

A being walked out, barely visible to her, but she could see its almost spindly form. Thin legs bent in an almost animal like fashion that were a pitch black that attached to a similarly black body. The upper part of the body was hidden from what appeared to be a long, tattered, grey cloak, hiding all but a strange red glow barely visible under the cloak. It's head was a white coloring, almost bone-like. The mask had three pairs of eyes running up the front of it, all seeming to watch her, but with no color coming from below, seemingly an abyss with no way in or out of it should one fall in. The mask was completely smooth except for a crack running from the left eye down to the jawline. It's visage reminded her of something that may have been human once, but fell into savagery. The only parts that stood out from the mask was the two horns that jutted forward from the front of the mask, curving upwards and ending pointing up at the sky, and the sharp teeth carved into the mask in a frown.

The monster, a Grimm of some sorts she was sure, lifted it's right hand from under the cloak. It pointed at her, taking a step forward, the shadows in the tree line that she could make out began to slowly twist. It almost looked like liquid of some kind, like the blood of slain Grimm. From the creature's finger a few drops of the black ink-like liquid dripped down onto the dirt, immediately tainting it a dark gray color and melting some of the grass into shriveling, dying white stalks. Ruby took a step back, her blood pumping quickly, and her heart beating fast enough to make her hearing echo as if she was under water. The Grimm seemed to notice her fear now, shaking its head and letting out a groan. It fell to a knee, covering its eyes with the clawed hand while letting out a pained sob.

Then it ended.

The Grimm slowly stood, dropping its hand. It looked to Ruby, some of the black liquid running from the crack in the left eyes in a way that looked like tears. Then there was a very faint glow of red from the six eyes, though it was weak. The creature towered over her, easily standing at seven feet tall, maybe taller. It slowly moved its hand back, reaching for something. Ruby quickly scanned for an exit, seeing one behind the Grimm, leading into the forest, where a faint white light could be seen. With a flash of movement the Grimm drew back her attention when it unsheathed a large sword. She had never seen Grimm wield weapons before! They were mindless beasts! The Grimm widened its stance, placing its left foot forward and bracing on its back foot. It pointed the sword towards her while keeping it by its side, raised and ready to either defend or attack. The blade was very long, easily being as tall as her, if not slightly bigger, and covered in black tendrils of the writhing liquid that began at the guard before running up the entire length of the straight blade. She could faintly see runes of some sort etched into the blade underneath the tendrils, but couldn't make out what they said.

It then rushed, going for a stab at her. She used her semblance, leaping to the side and bouncing off a statue, flipping parallel to the forest. She landed in a crouch, sensing something wrong and jumping backwards. As soon as she did, the Grimm brought the sword down where she had been in a stab. Dust was kicked up from the force, and a blast of wind blew her hair back. She twisted in the air when the blade came back towards her in an upwards slash.

It narrowly missed, cutting a hole in her pant legs. She planted her feet against a tree, kicking off it and back at the Grimm. She pressed a foot to the back of the blade and kicked it down into the dirt. Using the momentum she then put her other foot to its head, kicking off that and towards the forest. She tucked into a ball, flipping forward and watching as the blade narrowly missed where she was in the air. She landed in a roll, kicking off and running into the tree line. She could feel the Grimm on her almost immediately. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing it running at her, sword held behind it in a reverse grip, cloak whipping around it aggressively. Then she saw that underneath the cloak, it lacked a left arm. Where the limb should have been ended in a stump of glowing red liquid. She stopped looking when it swung. She slid, the blade sailing over her and easily carving through multiple trees, even some that seemed out of reach of the blade were cut by the force behind the strike. She may have had aura, but she didn't know if it could take many hits from this Grimm, with that kind of power.

She continued in her sprint, using her semblance to dart away. She took a brief glance back, spotting it still coming, but much farther away. She looked forward, spotting the light in front of her. She leapt into it, sliding to a halt and looking behind her. The Grimm stopped at the light, black dust kicking up from it digging wicked talons into the dirt. It glanced at her, without emotion. She couldn't sense the hunger or anger like she could from most Grimm. This one felt empty. Hollow. Like there wasn't anything inside it currently. She had felt dread before, but now that was suppressed. The Grimm then sheathed the blade, turning and slowly walking back into the darkness, disappearing from her sight. The light behind her began to grow more fierce, almost pulling her in.

When her eyes opened, she was back in her dorm room, with her teammates around her, looking at her with worried expressions. Yang most of all.

"Are you ok? Was it a nightmare? What happened?" Yang was holding her close. Too close.

"Yang! Can't... breathe!" The pressure immediately let up, allowing her to suck in a breath. She finished taking in as much air as possible before turning to talk to them. "I'm fine, guys. Just a nightmare."

_"Just _a nightmare!? Ruby, we were trying to wake you up for almost a half an hour! We were about to call someone to come help, we couldn't wake you!" her sister shouted.

Ruby glanced around to them, unsure if Yang was overexaggerating again or not. The looks on their faces, even the concern on Weiss' convinced her that she hadn't been able to be roused awake for a while. "Well... it was just a nightmare. I am fine after all." She gave a weak shrug to them all. It did little to console them, but she had no idea how she would be able to do that in the first place.

Blake placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad it was just a nightmare, but what was it about?"

Ruby looked down, her eyes narrowing. "Well..." She trailed off.

"If you can't remember it, then you don't have to try to act like you do."

"No! I do!" she shouted. "It just felt so real." She then let out a slow breath before explaining the dream to her teammates. Once she was done, she looked to them all, wondering what their thoughts were going to be on the dream.

Weiss only groaned, face palming softly. "This is why we said no more sneaking cookies before bed, Ruby. Your imagination is already wild as it is." She then stood, grabbing her set of clothes for the day and heading into the bathroom. "We may be up early, unfortunately, but we might as well start getting at the day now instead of wasting more time here contemplating a dream that wasn't even real."

Blake nodded, heading towards her bed to grab a book. "I agree. Also, second in shower."

Yang smiled warmly to Ruby. "I'm just glad it was only a nightmare, sis. You really had me worried there. Hopefully that was just a one off thing." She stood, spinning quickly and grabbing some workout clothes. "I'm going for a quick run, then I'm third when I get back!"

Ruby quickly realized she had been duped. Last, when all the hot water would be gone. "Not again! I always get shower last!"

"Maybe don't have nightmares," Blake teased from her bed.

Ruby gave a frown to her, shifting and tossing her feet off the side of her bed and jumping off. She landed, looking down and her breath catching in her throat. Her pant leg was slashed, in the same exact spot from in her nightmare. But that was impossible! Her mind then put something together. If this had remained upon her pants, then what about the damage that had happened in the garden during her dream? Was that still there? She needed to investigate that as soon as possible, to make sure she wasn't losing her mind, or something like that.

"You good, Ruby?" Blake suddenly asked, drawing the reaper's attention.

Ruby glanced up to her quickly. "Oh, yeah! Just trying to think of what I'm going to do while I wait for my turn."

"Don't you have to do the reading for Oobleck's class?"

Ruby groaned, falling down on her side. "Noooooo!" She needed a new plan. Then she got one. "I think I'm just going to go for a walk. Get some fresh air."

"Ruby, are you procrastinating?"

"What!? Me? Never!" She glanced into Blake's disbelieving eyes. "Maybe a little, but I'll do it! Trust me!" She quickly threw on some new pants, shirt and her red cloak. "I'll be right back, ok, bye!"

Blake sighed. "She really needs to stop having cookies before she goes to bed."

* * *

"You sure we should be doing this, Em?"

"For the third time in the past hour, yes, I'm sure. We need this lead, Drew." Emma turned to him as they walked, narrowing her blue eyes. "Now lock it down. It's getting old. We all know your distrust and dislike of Oz, and we don't care."

"And for good reason, considering the bastard just-"

"Andrew," a soft voice cut in. "Let it go. Whether you want to hang out with Ozpin or not, we're here, and doing this to find Tyre. So just let things go, if only for a while. It'll make things run smoother. Plus, Emma is about two steps away from cutting your head off with her shield."

"Daniel is right," a brown haired boy said, crossing his arms as they slowed, having reached the entrance to Beacon. "We do this, get it over with, find Tyre and finish what needs to be done. Then you never have to see Ozpin ever again."

Andrew sighed, closing his dark blue eyes as he ran a hand through his short blonde-white hair. "I know. I just... want this whole nightmare to be done."

"Hey," Emma said, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a reaffirming shake. Andrew turned back to her, seeing her smiling warming, her long, white hair flowing behind her. "We have each other. We stick together, and we'll be able to handle anything, alright? Just keep your cool, and we'll have your back."

Andrew nodded, giving his siblings a suddenly confused look. "Alright, get off me, you bunch of daisies. Jeeze."

They all laughed at him, chatting between each other happily while they waited for Glynda. After a short wait the tall blonde appeared, giving them all a quick once over. Then she smiled. "Good to see you all again."

Andrew walked forward, wrapping his arms around her. "Good to see you, mom."

"It is good to see you as well, my dear." They separated, Glynda motioning for them follow. "Come, we have much to discuss, and you have some dossiers. Ozpin had them made into digital copies, so I can share them with you." She held out her scroll, sending the data to them all quickly. "Since you most likely want to see the garden where the picture was taken first, we can head there. After that, I can take you to Ozpin for a briefing on the Black Queen, if you are interested in helping out there."

Daniel gave a quick nudge to Andrew when he sensed his souring emotions. The large blonde let out a tense sigh, but his emotions lifted slightly, feeling less frustrated and wrathful. Daniel made sure to secretly relay it to Emma, just so she was aware, but held back from letting Austin and Glynda know. He wouldn't ruin mother son time, and Austin was a bit dense when it came to dealing with other people's emotions.

The walk to the garden was brief, the group listening to Glynda as she spoke about the most recent events in Vale, with a robbery of Schnee Dust having been stopped just the night prior by a first year team, no less. Certainly impressive to them. What ever team had managed to stop a wanted criminal like Torchwick and fight off the White Fang carried a lot of skill to be certain. But when they reached the garden, all conversations of that ceased. They began to focus on what was in front of them, taking in the sights of the beautiful garden. The sun was just truly coming over the horizon now, bits of light reflecting from the droplets of water on the plants.

Emma closed her eyes as a patch of sunlight connected with her. She spread her arms, a signal to the rest to stop, even if she wasn't asking them to. When the sunlight connected with her face her complexion brightened almost immediately. Her hair began to turn from snow white into a beautiful auburn color as it seemed to leak down her long hair before reaching the ends. With a faint glow appearing around her before disappearing, she opened her eyes which had changed to a bright honey color. "Hello, Sun-Mother," she whispered softly. Turning to her brothers and Goodwitch, she nodded for them to continue onwards.

Glynda motioned with her hand towards a walkway between some of the hedges. "Back there, you'll find where the pictures were taken. We haven't scouted too far back into the garden yet, but we haven't had enough cause yet to place it off limits." They entered, seeing a large open courtyard. But the first thing that had drawn their attention was the bright red cloak on the girl in front of them. She hadn't noticed them yet, as she was looking at one of the cut pieces of stone, narrowing her eyes in confusion.

Glynda stepped forward, a slight look of annoyance on her face. She cleared her throat, getting the girl's attention. "Miss Rose!"

The girl leapt high up, spinning and going rigid. "Yes, Ms. Goodwitch!?"

"What are you doing here this early? Shouldn't you be resting after the mess you and your team made at the docks last night?" So this was one of the girl's behind Goodwitch's headache of paperwork.

"Well, I was just going for a walk, ya know? And then saw this statue was damaged, and was like 'Wow! How did this happen? What could have done this? Some kind of blade, maybe, right?'" She trailed off when she saw Goodwitch's unamused look, paired with crossed arms and cocked hip. "So that's why I'm here!"

"Are you sure?" Glynda asked.

"Yup!" the girl answered.

Daniel stepped forward, smiling warmly to Goodwitch. "Come on, now. She isn't hurting anyone. And she has no idea we're here to conduct an investigation into the ones who did this horrible act of vandalism."

"You are?"

"We are?" Emma immediately hit Austin in the gut, causing him to lean over and wheeze out, "You bet your ass we are!" And then mutter a harsh, "Bitch," under his breath. Emma only smiled warmly at the girl.

"Oh, well in that case. I'll umm, leave you to it." She began to walk away when she was called out to by Daniel. She turned quickly, her eyes widening. "Yeah?"

"Until further notice, this place is off limits. It may be dangerous here. Just let people know, since we won't have it roped off for a bit." He gave her a warm, but emotionless smile.

The girl returned a genuine one. "Sounds good to me!" She darted off, leaving a trail of rose petals behind her. Daniel turned back to them.

"Nice one she is."

"And?" Emma asked.

"And she is lying. She knows something. Hid it moderately well on her face by acting all confused. But she knows about what happened here, to a degree."

Andrew began slinking off. "I'll tail her."

"Not yet," Daniel said, raising a hand slowly. "She may have an idea but she doesn't have any clues. So long as she stays away from this place from now on, we have no reason to track her. If she gets suspicious, that'll raise more alarm than we need right now. We keep this on the low."

Emma nodded to him. "Good idea. Then in that case, let's begin actually finding clues. If she is as rowdy as you made her and her team out to be, Goodwitch, she may come back to try some more snooping. And we can't have that."

Glynda nodded. "I'll get Ozpin to officially close down the back part of the gardens for maintenance. We can use Daniel's excuse for an act of vandalism as our scapegoat. But in the meantime, we should see what's here."

They began to walk further in, not aware of the red cloaked girl listening in on their conversation. She quickly darted away from them, panicking at what she was supposed to do with this new information.

Emma was the first to find the large clump of trees that had been cut down. She hissed in anger at the ink coating the stumps and severed trunks. "Seems he was busy last night after he got done cutting up the stone work. But why?"

Austin hummed, leaning against one of the trees that was still upright. "Not sure. He hasn't been this violent in the past. Sure, there were bouts of where stuff was splattered about and cut up, but nothing quite like this. Mostly just old homes and hideaways scattered throughout the kingdom."

"Something brought him back to Beacon, and whatever it is, it has him upset for some reason," Emma said.

Daniel went to one of the puddles of ink that had pooled around a small cut in the ground. A stab of sorts. Well aimed and powerful, considering it slightly cratered the surrounding area, and the ground was heavily disturbed. He turned to Andrew. "Spot me." He waited till the blonde had grabbed his shoulders before dipping his fingers slowly into the black puddle.

His eyes began to turn completely black, an inky substance washing over them slowly. He could feel many emotions, all screaming in his head at once. They were almost too much at first, but he managed to calm most of them down immediately. "What's wrong?" he asked.

The emotions all cried for various things, but most of them spoke about something silver. "What did the silver do?" The voices all went silent, something completely new to him. Then one soft, sobbing voice moaned out a single word.

_"Nothing..." _

Then all the voices came back at once, screaming into his mind. He tensed, clenching his teeth tightly before calling to Andrew. The blonde instantly ripped him away from the pile, putting himself between it and his younger brother. The puddle was now writhing on the ground, slightly reaching towards Daniel, but unable to move any closer. Daniel let out pained breaths as Emma ran her hands over his forehead, a golden light coming from them and soothing the pain he felt. "What did you find out?" she asked.

"Something silver. He saw something silver I think. And it upset him for some reason."

"Did it attack him?" Austin asked, kneeling near him.

"No. That's the strange part. The 'silver' didn't do anything. That is what seemed to upset him. I felt immense fear and panic right before all of the emotions went rampant. Seems when 'silver' did nothing, that caused this rampage here." Daniel then looked around, making to stand quickly, despite Emma telling him to take it easy. He got to his knees, looking around swiftly when he gasped. "Silver... Silver isn't a thing. Look at the scuffle.

Andrew began to get closer to the various disturbances. "A fight. He was fighting something. Something silver?"

"Yes!" Daniel managed to stand with Emma's help. "Now we just need to track it. Find out where either Tyre or this Silver character went." He turned to Andrew, giving a weak, but excited smile. "Do your thing, bloodhound."

Andrew nodded, finding a patch of dirt and closing in. He took in a deep whiff, growling slightly. Not a good sign. No scent for him to track. But his acute eyes noticed something. He pulled out his combat knife from his belt, getting low to the ground. He gently stabbed the blade into the ground, motioning the others near. "Footprints. Barefoot. Female." He then stabbed further ahead. "Stride size. She was running. Reckon this is our Silver." The others could barely see the prints, glad they had Andrew's tracking skills or they may have treaded all over it. He then began to follow them, making small auditory notes for the others. "No other footprints visible besides Silver's."

They followed the trail for a short while until they reached an exit out of the garden. Andrew noticed that the Silver prints ended, having slowed and turned, as if she had looked at something, but still no other prints from any pursuer of any kind. He started to follow them out when he stopped suddenly. "The trails gone."

"Gone?" Emma stepped forward. "Gone how?"

"Like whoever this Silver was just vanished out of thin air. Poof, gone." He kneeled down, taking in deep breathes through his nose and scanning with his bright eyes. "But that's impossible. No way this Silver just turned to smoke. She doesn't even have a scent, either." He then slowly backed up to where the prints ended. He kneeled down to them, eyeing them closely. "That's... not possible."

"What is it, Drew?"

"But, if that is what happened, they there should be some more prints over..." He mulled his words before glancing out of the exit of the garden, furrowing his brows.

"Drew?"

"Is this the... no, it doesn't work like that, as far as I know... but then again... he did love his secrets..."

"Andrew!" Emma shouted.

"What!? I didn't-What?" He glanced to the group that had very closely followed him, all of them glancing down to him with annoyed and impatient eyes.

"Well? What happened to the trail?"

He stood, clearing his throat and returning his knife to his sheathe. "Well, this Silver person ran all the way here, right?" He motioned to where her tracks ended. "Then she stopped suddenly." He motioned to where a small skid was. "Small, easy, controlled stop and small prints means a woman of smaller frame, and likely dressed very lightly, if the bare feet weren't already an indication. So someone taking a midnight stroll in their pajamas, perhaps."

"Ok, so what happened to the trail?"

"I'm getting there," he said, waving them off. "So they turn here, yeah?" He then pointed out some of the prints being turned around. "Now these are the last one's she takes, as they're the most visible and cover most of the others. But they then slide off, like she did one of a few things. She fell, but there's no disturbance to show that. She was grabbed and dragged off her feet, but there aren't any other prints behind her. Or lastly, she grew wings and flew away like a bird."

"So she basically vanished?"

"Basically." The ground looked around in confusion for a few seconds when Austin spoke.

"Did we just hit another dead end?" They grew deathly silent after that.

"No," Daniel said. He narrowed his eyes. "Tyre came to this garden. It was one of his favorite places back when we attended Beacon. There has to be a reason. He goes completely off the grid for weeks, and then does this? This is a sign, a call for something."

"Or him trying to kill Silver," Andrew said. "Those markings and way he cut those trees? They were him going for the kill. Not trying to scare someone off. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of him trying to kill you. And besides all he would have to do is show his face to scare people."

"Claiming a territory?" Emma said.

"No." Daniel shook his head, standing on his own two feet, albeit a little shaky. "The shades wanted something with this Silver. She is the cause."

"By doing nothing? Sorry, Daniel, but that sounds like what happens when a person just waltz into a wild animal's territory. If they don't leave, they get mauled. Silver probably decided, 'A midnight stroll sounds wonderful!' and then got jumped when she strode on in here." Austin looked around. "She may not even be alive still." He turned to Glynda. "I would check in on all students today. If someone is absent who is a female and small, they may be dead. Or somewhere here in this garden. But if Andrew was right about the whole, aiming to kill, I wouldn't hold my breath."

Glynda nodded. "If this is a territory thing, then we definitely need to lock the gardens down. If Tyre is attacking people, we cannot risk any more students."

"We also need to find out who Silver is," Emma said. "My guess is that girl from earlier. You said she knew something, right Daniel?"

"Yes, but I don't think she is Silver, considering she is dressed in red from head to toe." Daniel hummed in thought. "The girl may know who Silver is though. She didn't seem to have any idea of what was happening. I detected much confusion from her, so she might have been checking up on this place for Silver."

Glynda opened her scroll. "I can pull her in for questioning."

"Don't," Emma cut in. "That could cause issues and make Silver bolt. Can't have that. We need to know who Silver is before we act."

Andrew crossed his arms. "Does red hood have any silver friends?"

Glynda hummed. "Not completely. The closest would be her partner, Weiss Schnee. But she's much more akin to wearing white than silver."

"There's a difference?" Austin asked.

"Yes, moron," Emma said. "Silver is slightly darker."

"Well, hey, not my fault I don't know things like that. God, it's like the whole purple and fuchsia thing again."

"Because there is a difference, if you would just take the time to learn it!"

"Children!" Glynda cut in. "Argue over colors later. Right now it sounds as though, Weiss and Ruby are our best bets at finding out more about Tyre and what occurred here last night."

The group all exchanged nods. "We have a place to start. That's far more than we can say we've had for a while." Emma smiled to her siblings. "Alright, let's doll out jobs and get on it." She turned to Goodwitch. "And we'll help you and Ozpin out. We owe you for this. So whenever you need our help, let us know, and we'll be there."

* * *

Ruby made it back to the dorm, launching herself into the shower to hide from the others while she sorted her thoughts. So those four people who she had seen in the garden with Goodwitch weren't there to investigate any sort of damages. They knew about what she knew, and now she knew what they knew about what had happened! She then froze, wondering if they knew she knew that they knew about the monster. If they knew she knew that they knew, they would be after her, no doubt. But they wouldn't hurt her right? They were with Goodwitch after all. But they did lie to her about not knowing. So maybe that wasn't actually Goodwitch! No, that was a little farfetched, even for her.

She leaned against the wall of the shower, crossing her arms as she thought about her next move. She needed to know if this was simply a one time thing, or if there was more to this. But she couldn't just drag her team into it. They just thought it was a dream, after all. But she had her torn pajama leg. No, they might think she just did that though, whether intentionally, or in her sleep. And if the gardens were going to be put off limits, then they wouldn't risk going in just to see if a simple 'nightmare' was real or not. So she had to gather proof without getting her team to where the proof was, somehow.

She huffed in annoyance. How the heck was she supposed to do that, especially when she may or may not be under the crosshairs of those four people right now! She felt a cold chill run down her spine at the thought. Then her legs, and shoulders and... everywhere!

"Ah! Cold water! I hate cold water!"


End file.
